Balestri TQs opening qualifier at ENS finale

Dario Balestri backed up his blistering practice pace by TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying on Day 1 of the Euro Nitro Series season finale at Fiorano in Italy.  The Capricorn driver was the only one to complete 15-laps of the Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter circuit with fellow countryman Francesco Tironi just missing out on the 15-laps to post the 2nd fastest time.  A round that would see Balestri team-mate & champion elect Eric Dankel retire after 3 laps due to broken exhaust springs, Serpent’s Dominic Greiner would complete the Top 3.

Asked if it was a perfect opening qualifier, Balestri said ‘perfect is very hard but the run was good’ despite some traffic issues.  ‘Very happy’ with how his new C03 and XRD engine ran, him being the only driver to run regular 16-second laps, he said the run had the potential to be faster but he chose to run a brand new set of the Hot Race controlled tyres.  Set to leave his car unchanged, the 2-time European 200mm Champion will run a set of tyres he scrubbed-in in controlled practice in Q2 which he said should further improve his pace.

The only other driver to set a 16-second lap time in Q1, which was almost 2/10ths off Balestri’s best, Tironi said his Shepherd was worse than in practice.  Having went for a slightly harder front shock, he will revert to the light 500w oil he ran in practice as well as making some additional changes to try and make his Velox V10 easier to drive.  He said while his car wasn’t good the most important point was that he open up qualifying with a 2nd which is important for the ENS qualifying format which sees points from the best 3 of 5 rounds counting rather than nitro racing’s traditional outright fastest time.

‘A horrible run’ was how Greiner summed up Q1, the German describing his 748 as being ‘like a Mustang to drive’ as it had ‘no steering’.  While Serpent designer Michael Salven feels a change of bodyshell is the issue, Greiner still running a lightweight Spark body, but one with a lot less paint, the Round 2 Race winner & Round 3 Top Qualifier will make a radical set-up change for Q2.  With the car ‘terrible for the first 3-minutes’, he will change the rear diff, camber, ant-roll bars and go back to a front bumper with no holes in it.

Xray’s Mario Spiniello posted the fourth fastest time, the Italian saying he went for a ‘safe first run’.  Having struggled for steering in practice a change to a lighter front diff improved this for Q1.  Still looking to get a bit more steering from his NT1, having run the front anti roll bar at 45 degrees for Q2 he will change it to flat.

While his ‘pace was so so’, Dirk Wischnewski said the run was ‘bad’.  On lap 9 of 14 while running a Top 3 pace, the Shepherd driver made a mistake coming onto the straight resulting in an 18-second lap.  Describing the run as ‘not a good start’, he said while he doesn’t have the pace to TQ, his car is capable of Top 3 runs.  For Q2 he will go to a lighter oil in the front diff of his Orcan powered Velox V10 in the hope of finding more steering.

Running Capricorn’s C02 chassis as University exams prevented him from testing with the new C03, David Loppini completed the Top 6.  The 20-year-old from Rome said his practice pace was hampered by his low heat listing but having been reseeded to heat 2 he was better able to focus on his driving.  Switching to softer shock and diff oils for the first qualifier he said this also helped improve the feeling of his G-Mar powered car.

KM Racing’s Silvio Hachler posted the seventh fastest time despite a problem with second gear.  Starting the run off working as he set it, the Swiss driver said towards the end it started to shift early.  Reasonably happy with the handling of his Novarossi powered HK-1 saying it was better than practice but with room to improve, for Q2 he will run the second gear from his spare car.

View complete event results here.

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Pietsch fastest in practice at title decider

Robert Pietsch was fastest in practice at the title deciding season finale of the Euro Nitro Series, the Mugen driver topping the 1:8 times from team-mate Rick Vrielijnck and championship rival Simon Kurzbuch.  Over 3-consecutive laps of the Fiorano track, the German was 4/10th faster than Vrielijnck with Kurzbuch a further 1/10th off with his Shepherd.

Pleased with his pace, ENS Round 3 race winner Pietsch said he hasn’t had to do much to his MRX-5 having travelled to the famous Italian track two weeks ago for testing.  With some drivers having issues with the high grip created by the 1:5 event held here last weekend, Pietsch said he got lucky with the timing of his test as just days before there had also been a large scale race held.  The former World Champion said the grip this time round was different however because of the oil from the 150 plus nitro cars running this weekend and mixing with the rubber laid down by the 1:5 cars but still his car was working well. Skipping the last practice due to the heavily loaded practice groups making for a very busy track, he said he is well prepared now for qualifying, 1:8 running the first of their 5 qualifier this evening.  In terms of his car the Mugen designer is running new lower rear arms and a new rod assembly that replaces the original rear upper arm with both parts set to feature on the next generation 1:8 Mugen kit release.

Racing at the track for the first time in 3-years, Vrielijnck said practice had gone ‘pretty well’ with his big focus being on finding two set-ups for his MRX-5, one for the morning and one for the evening.  The car being good in the morning he said in the evening the track feels more greasy adding that possibly some of the changes needed for those conditions might need to come from the driver.  Calling the practice runs ‘busy’, for Q1 he will go for the best set-up he has ran and with a clearer track he will see how that works out over 4-minutes.  In the engine department, the Dutch driver said he was really happy with how his Picco engine felt.

Championship points leader Kurzbuch said his Novarossi powered Velox V8 was better in the morning.  Changing shock oil for the first controlled practice,  the Swiss driver said it made little difference so he reverted back to what he started out with but in the second practice the car was ‘not so good’, his Top 3 seeding time coming from CP1.  Unsure as to why the car lost pace he said he is going over everything on it to check all is correct adding if he can get the car back to where it was in free practice he should be good for Q1.

Winner of the Novarossi Trophy race here last month, Lamberto Collari set the fourth fastest time.  Running a standard Mugen MRX-5, the 1:8 legend said his biggest concentration in controlled practice was adjusting his car to suit the handout Hot Race tyres.  Describing the track as having a lot more grip than at the Novarossi Trophy, he said the tyres given out in the controlled zone are slightly softer.  Making some fine adjustment for this he is confident they will be good for Q1.

Fifth fastest was Shepherd driver Andrea Lorenzi.  The 21-year-old said he is lacking consistency but the speed is there.  Feeling he is improving his OS Speed powered Velox V8 with each run for the first qualifier he will take a risk with changing bodyshell.  Having run Protoform’s R18, the Italian will switch to a local made Zytech Ginetta body which he said should give him better off power steering allowing him to improve on his consistency.

Completing the Top 6 was Oliver Mack was ‘not so happy’.  The Shepherd driver said his car feels fast to drive but when he looks at the time sheets that feeling is not reflected and he doesn’t know why.  Admitting the power of his Sonic engine was a little lacking he will change to a different one for Q1 but said the biggest problem is that his Velox V8 is a bit too easy to drive.  Set to make a rear end set-up change the German said he hoped that would make things better for qualifying.  Behind Mack, BP Racing’s Mirko Salemi set the 7th fastest time followed by Round 2 race winner John Ermen and BMT’s Daniele Ielasi with European Junior Champion Noah Asendorf rounding out the Top 10.

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Balestri tops practice at ENS Finale

Dario Balestri has topped 1:10 Touring Car practice at the season finale of the Euro Nitro Series, the Capricorn driver having a considerable advantage over his rivals on 3-consecutive laps of the Fiorano track.  Closest to the Italian was Serpent’s Dominic Greinier, the ENS Round 2 race winner 4/10ths off in the seeding times that will determine the starting order for the qualifying which gets underway later today with the first two of five scheduled rounds.  Team Shepherd’s Francesco Tironi would complete the Top 3 ahead of team-mate Dirk Wischnewski and champion elect Eric Dankel.

Running Capricorn’s new CO3 chassis, which since making its debut at the European Championships has an all new chassis plate, Balestri declared himself pretty happy with his early pace.  Describing the Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter circuit as ‘the best in Italy’, he is no stranger to the track as this is where his Italian team conducts the majority of its testing and it is also where he claimed the first of his four European title when he became the 1:8 B Champion in 2004.  Commenting on the new car he said the biggest difference is in the steering which he described as ‘pretty high’ and with the car still new to him he feels there is a lot more time to come out of it.

Dominic Greiner said while his ‘pace is ok’ his 748 is ‘not feeling very good to drive at the minute’, something he said is due to the rubber laid down last weekend when the track hosted a 1:5 race that attracted 150 entries.  Running a new prototype gearbox and diffs in his car, the German said while it has good corner speed he needs more steering.  His first race for new engine sponsor Max, for the first qualifier he will drill holes in his front bumper as well as making caster adjustment.

Tironi summed up practice as having gone ‘not bad’ saying his Velox V10 was quite good and would be good for a final.  Looking to get a little more steering both on his entry on to the straight and again through the sweeper after it for Q1 he will go from 500w to 550w oil in his front shocks as well as adjusting his rear toe.

Describing Balestri as being ‘in a different world’ in terms of his pace, Wischnewski said ‘so far its ok’ feeling he is on par with the rest of the front runners.  His first time to race at the Fiorano track, like Greiner he said the track is tricky following the 1:5 event.  Laying down a lot of rubber the former European Champion said if you touch the curbing it pulls the car in.  With Hot Race the controlled tyre of the fourth & final round of the ENS, the German said for him their is a big difference between the first and the second run on the tyre with the second much better.

‘Not bad but not super good’ was double race winner Dankel’s summary of his practice pace.  Describing the hand out tyres he got for controlled practice as being slightly harder than those he was using in open practice, the German said this left his CO3 with a little understeer. Able to improve this between the first & second controlled practice with some set-up changes, he said overall the car is very consistent over 4-minutes and he will just reduce the rear droop for the opening qualifier.

Behind Dankel, Italian Shepherd driver Christian Costanzo completed the Top 6 followed by Shepherd owner Patrick Schafer, Xray’s Mario Spiniello and KM Racing’s Silvio Hächler along with European B Champion Thilo Tödtmann round out the Top 10.

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Track Focus – Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter

Track Name – Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter
Club – Racing Minicar Fiorano
Country – Italy
Location – Fiorano (20km South-West of Modena)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
Previous key events hosted – 1:8 European B Championships, 1:5 Bike World Championships

Located just 500 metres from Ferrari’s privately privately owned Fiorano test track and just a 5-minute drive away from the Ferrari factory, Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter plays host to the season finale of the inaugural season of the Euro Nitro Series, the event becoming the biggest race to be held at the famous Italian track.  Built in 1996, the facility covers at total area of 13,000 square metres and is the brainchild of the operating Racing Minicar Fiorano club president Angelo Gesualdi.  Approaching the city of Fiorano with his idea to build an r/c track in an area steeped in motoring history, they liked his idea and giving him the land as well as providing services to it, including the building of the toilet block.   Turning to the industry for support to build the actual track, with Novarossi one of the biggest contributors, they built a 297 metre long track.  At the time of building the track, and in keeping with their full size racing neighbours, it was decided to name the track after Ferrari’s last world champion Jody Scheckter.  With Gesualdi’s good friend a mechanic for the South African in Formula 1, they were able to directly contact Scheckter and get an official endorsement to name the track after the 1979 World Champion.  Annually the track’s biggest races are the Novarossi Trophy for 1:10 & 1:8 and the Modelteck Trophy for 1:5 scale with it also having hosted the 1:8 European B Championship in 2004 when Dario Balestri took the win and the 2007 1:5 R/C Bike World Championships.

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